This paper reports on analysing components of a drone in minimising the quantity required as well as to examine the potential sustainable design that can be improved. Design for Manufacturing Assembly (DFMA) and Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) were applied and combined in this work. Results showed how the numbers of components were reduced down to 38% after applying DFMA, whereas the LCA proved that the weight was reduced to 30%, carbon footprint 38.4%, water eutrophication 36.4%, air acidification 67% and total energy consumed 31.2%. This newly approach is significant in proving the effectiveness of both tools to be applied in reducing the cost of manufacturing a drone as well as to improve the sustainable aspects of designing products.

Optimization of assembly process and environmental impact using DFMA and sustainable design analysis: Case study of drone

Abstract The design for manufacturing and assembly (DFMA) is a family of methods belonging to the design for X (DfX) category which goal is to optimize the manufacturing and assembly phase of products. DFMA methods have been developed at the beginning of the 1980s and widely used in both academia and industries since then. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no systematic literature reviews or mapping has been proposed yet in the field of mechanical design. The goal of this paper is to provide a systematic review of DFMA methods applied to mechanical and electro-mechanical products with the aim to collect, analyse, and summarize the knowledge acquired until today and identify future research areas. The paper provides an overview of the DFMA topic in the last four decades (i.e., from 1980 to 2021) emphasizing operational perspectives such as the design phase in which methods are used, the type of products analysed, the adoption of quantitative or qualitative metrics, the tool adopted for the assessment, and the technologies involved. As a result, the paper addresses several aspects associated with the DFMA and different outcomes retrieved by the literature review have been highlighted. The first one concerns the fact that most of the DFMA methods have been used to analyse simple products made of few components (i.e., easy to manage with a short lead-time). Another important result is the lack of valuable DFMA methods applicable at early design phases (i.e., conceptual design) when information is not detailed and presents more qualitative than quantitative data. Both results lead to the evidence that the definition of a general DFMA method and metric adaptable for every type of product and/or design phase is a challenging goal that presents several issues. Finally, a bibliographic map was developed as a suitable tool to visualize results and identify future research trends on this topic. From the bibliometric analysis, it has been shown that the overall interest in DFMA methodologies decreased in the last decade. 

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Design for manufacturing and assembly methods in the product development process of mechanical products: a systematic literature review

DFMA for product designers: A review

Processing in planetary ball mills is well suited to a large number of applications because they are easy to operate and versatile, grinding faster than other mills. Research related to planetary mills are mainly about the process evaluation, and there are few studies on the mechanical design of such equipment. This paper describes the decision process in the design of an innovative planetary mill in which design for manufacture and assembly (DFMA) principles were used to provide compact equipment made of simple and standardized parts. We developed a friction wheel mechanism with an additional degree of freedom that improves transmission and facilitates assembly, reducing the need for adjustment. It can be applied to different equipment that relies on planetary motion or rotating devices. A prototype was built, and its grinding performance surpasses that of other types of traditional mill. The mean particle size of alumina powder was reduced from 4.2 µm to 0.9 µm in 60 minutes.

https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1702/7/2/33/pdf

Planetary Mill with Friction Wheels Transmission Aided by an Additional Degree of Freedom

Based on the promise to revolutionize the entire supply chain, additive manufacturing is seen as an alternative to conventional manufacturing processes, since it simplifies the production of small batches, shortens the distances between production and consumption and generates new distribution models. Due to its huge potential to spread more sustainable environmental practices, investigations on the environmental assumptions, concerning the application of additive manufacturing technologies, are required. Therefore, based on a systematic literature review, this study aimed to analyze the studies that addressed the environmental performance of logistics operations in a comparison among conventional and additive manufacturing, using the Life Cycle Assessment technic (LCA). Although there are few available studies that quantitatively analyze and compare the environmental performance of the additive manufacturing process with traditional process from a transport perspective, it has been concluded that reducing the distances and the quantity of transported products, carbon dioxide emissions and the consumption of energy resources are reduced.

/pdf/systematic-analysis-of-comparative-studies-between-additive-36hxc3q8ss.pdf

Systematic analysis of comparative studies between additive and conventional manufacturing focusing on the environmental performance of logistics operations

Reducing the time and cost involved in the product development is very important to stay competitive in the market. Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) is a cost-reduction framework for designers to evaluate manufacturing aspects of a product design. A case study on an in-market food processor, this paper aims to demonstrate the significance of DFMA implementation on an Indian consumer product. Even though many DFMA case studies have been published till date, very few have dealt with the Indian consumer durables category. In this paper, various cost-reduction opportunities are identified in the design of a food processor manufactured by a reputed company in India. Using the DFMA study, design ideas are developed with an objective of reducing the overall manufacturing cost of the product. As a result of DFMA implementation, significant improvement in terms of the product’s architecture, assembly time and design efficiency is identified. Overall cost reduction of 0.25 USD (United States Dol...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/21693277.2016.1261052

C. D. Naiju

Papers

Redesign of an in-market food processor for manufacturing cost reduction using DFMA methodology